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  Welcome to Lewis’s Bank Limited, an undoubtedly British
phenomenon, and a clever idea, too – when you are shopping in the department
store, what better way to get your hands on more cash for your purchases than
by visiting the in-store bank! With a
branch in Glasgow, Lewis’s Bank gives Martins a foothold in Scotland, and
Lewis’s founding principle of making banking available to all, sits well with
Martins own ideals. The novelty of a
children’s counter appeals to families, who are able to shop and bank
together on a Saturday afternoon, making the savings habit even easier to
pick up. In this section, we bring together articles and images that help
tell the story of Lewis’s brief but productive time with Martins Bank. Lewis’s Bank was sold to Lloyds Bank in
1967, and continued to trade well into the 1980s
 In an attempt to make Lewis’s staff feel as
welcome as possible, and to continue the tradition of visiting and reporting
on branches throughout the country, Martins Bank Magazine was to feature
Lewis’s Branches and staff in its pages over the nine year period of Lewis’s
ownership by Martins. Thanks to this
action, a small number of precious photographs remain today and provide a
rare glimpse into the world of Lewis’s Bank between 1958 and 1967. It seems
to have been a very happy world both for staff and for customers. Sadly, the only branch of Lewis’s
Department Store to remain open into the twenty-first century - the
magnificent Liverpool store – announced closure plans early in 2010. Although run by a different
company for a number of years, the name Lewis’s was retained, to indicate the
distinguished history of one of Liverpool’s most loved shops. It would seem however that with
competition, not least from online stores, Lewis’s is no longer strong enough
to survive.
 “The
People’s Bank”…
Special
thanks to Barclays Group Archive and Lloyds Banking Group Archive.
Some
text is abridged from FOUR CENTURIES OF BANKING
©
Martins Bank Limited 1964
In July 1958, Martins acquired the full share capital of Lewis's
Bank Limited, which was a notable step forward, quantitatively the largest
since 1928. Lewis's Bank became a wholly owned subsidiary of Martins Bank,
but retained its name and its services and facilities to its customers.
Lewis's Bank was started in 1928 as a department of Lewis's store, which had
been founded almost a century earlier in Liverpool. In 1934 it was formed into a private
limited company as a subsidiary of Lewis's Limited, and branch banks were
opened in all Lewis's stores—at Liverpool,
Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Hanley, Leicester, Bristol and London
(Selfridges). Its convenient banking hours, including Saturday afternoon
opening, and its family services attracted over 130,000 depositors, with
total deposits of over £12 million.
An advertisement in the Daily
Dispatch of 2 December 1928 explained the popular aim of Lewis's Bank:
'During the past seventy-five years Lewis's has grown from a tiny shop in
Ranelagh Street to be the largest departmental store organisation outside
London. Lewis's Bank will be the People's Bank, and it will be conducted in
the same spirit of catering for and service to the public that characterises
all the other departments of their business. Lewis's Bank will accept any
amount from one shilling upwards and will pay out withdrawals at any time
without previous notice. . . .
Lewis's Bank will issue Home Safes to encourage children to save. . . . There will be nothing stiff and
formal about Lewis's Bank.'
Thrift is the key
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 In 1964, the latest Lewis’s Store
and Bank open at Blackpool, in a building that will go on to be the home of Woolworths in the
town. At this point, roughly in the
middle of its ownership by Martins, Lewis’s Bank issues a home safe in the
style of a small book. We are
delighted to have acquired an example which is shown here, alongside an
example of a Lewis’s Bank metal home safe which we also recently
acquired. The latter is interesting in
that it does not follow the same design as that used by almost every other
bank and building society in the country. The lewis’s version is bigger, more
solid, and significantly heavier. The ten branches of Lewis’s Bank are for
the first time listed together on the cover of the “book” moneybox – nine
branches are at the Lewis’s Department stores at Birmingham, Blackpool, Bristol, Glasgow, Hanley,
Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, and Manchester. The tenth branch
of the Bank is to be found inside the prestigious Selfridges Store at 400
Oxford Street, London.
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Images © Martins Bank Archive
The book shaped money box is
identical in shape and size to Martins’ own version, which by the early 1960s
has replaced the older oval shaped metal boxes that have been around since
1921. The spine of the book reads: “Thrift by Lewis’s”, a similar declaration
to “First Aid to Thrift”, which is the motto used on Martins’ home
safes at this time. Whilst thrift might be the key to savings, the only actual
key to your savings is that which is held at all times by the bank, to
prevent you from dipping in and frittering away…
 M
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